24 Aug 2001
Pairing: 2+R
Category: Romance
Rating for this section: G
What to expect: Hetero-ai, fluffy sap.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to Sunrise, the Sotsu
Agency, and Bandai, and I intend only to increase their
revenues by contributing this derivative work.
/ denotes thoughts, emphasis
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
Lift my days, light up my nights
Visits were wonderful; no question about that. The down time between them, on the other hand, was absolutely miserable. By two months after the colony governor's birthday party, Relena had discarded all pretense of coping. She caught herself glancing at the phone all afternoon. It would be so easy to pick it up and dial, and then--
But she would not give in, even if it took outright bullying just to keep her hand off that receiver. /What kind of baby are you, that you can't last another five minutes? Five, and then another five, until it adds up to three hours--and when you go home, then you can call him. If you make it that long./
The phone rang. She pounced.
"It's me." That voice was a like a drug, instantly soothing.
Relena drew a deep breath. "Oh, good," she said fervently.
"You sound sad. Did something happen?"
A sigh from Relena's end of the phone line, though she tried to speak lightly. "I'm just standing in purple today, I think."
"That bad?"
"Yes." A very small voice.
"Are you by yourself?"
"Mm-hm."
"Okay, do this. Take the hand that isn't holding the phone, and put that arm right around your other shoulder. Got it there?"
"Yes."
"Now squeeze."
There was silence on the other end of the phone, and then Duo heard a very quiet sob. "Hey, that wasn't supposed to make you cry. It's a hug, see?"
"I think that's why I'm crying." Relena sounded reasonably analytical, though tearful.
"Well, that wasn't part of the plan," he said in mock exasperation. "Try squeezing harder."
"Ouch."
"Not that hard."
Now she laughed, until it ran headlong into a sob. "Oh, why aren't you here?"
Duo leaned forward to rest his head on his hand, clutching the phone so tightly that his fingers ached. "I wish I was, too. Just hang in there, okay? Yellow's coming back."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
When Relena got home, a florist's delivery truck sat idling in her driveway, and the delivery person himself was sitting patiently on her step. "Hi--wow, you really are her. You look just like you!"
"I should hope so." She rubbed surreptitiously at her throbbing temple, striving for patience.
"Well, they told me to wait--somebody paid extra, didn't want these left on the porch or anything." He held out a huge paper-wrapped sheaf of flowers.
Relena took them, a little bit wonderingly, and laid back the edge of the wrapping: daffodils. A whole armload of sunny blooms.
She sat down on the step, cradling them in her arms. An envelope slid out of the paper cone to land at her feet, and she picked it up. Inside was a printed slip, typical for wired-in orders: 'E: Told you yellow was on its way. --O'
"Hey, no crying." The delivery man patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. "Says right here on the invoice: 'Don't let her cry. Tell her to call.' See?" He held it out for her, and her tears dissolved in disbelieving laughter as she read just that, printed in fourteen-point Courier on the delivery copy.
"I won't. I mean I'll stop. Thank you--I've got to call--" she managed, fumbling for her keys. Shaking his head, the driver threw her a salute from the sidewalk as he headed back to his truck.
Duo picked up on the first ring, and she could hear him grinning. "You got 'em, huh?"
"Yes." She was determined not to sniffle, but couldn't quite keep the quaver out of her voice. "They're lovely. And very, very yellow."
"Good. And stop crying, already!"
The sniffles gave way to helpless giggling at his indignant tone. "All right, all right! I don't want you to stop payment on the poor man's tip, after all."
"As if I would!" Duo managed to sound even more aggrieved. "Anyway. Want to talk about the purple?"
"What purple?" she asked innocently. "All I see is yellow."
End of Part 9: Illumination
(:./lilias/mystified9)
